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Country profile / BRN

Brunei

Use this profile to establish Brunei’s economic scale, locate its financial structure among reporting peers, trace credit and crisis history, and read its sovereign and external balance sheets. Follow any section into the dedicated module, or audit the primary source cited beside it.

Latest government debt
2.3%
2024 (Central govt (IMF GDD))
Crisis years by type
0
none in the five chronologies
Private credit by banks
38.8%
GFDD, 2020
BIS credit-cycle data
Not covered
not in the BIS credit statistics
Nonperforming loans (current)
1.6%
IMF FSI, 2025

Cross-border banking exposure: how much BIS-reporting banks lend to Brunei.

Economic scale

Brunei's population rose over the reported history

Brunei’s population, real GDP per capita, and total-factor productivity from the Penn World Table, 1950–2023.
Population
0.4623
millions
0.000.200.400.6019702023
Real GDP per capita (PPP)
8415523
2021 US$, chained
500007500010000012500015000019702023
Total factor productivity
No data for this country
A scale reference for every other section on this page, not a financial-risk series in its own right.

Source: Penn World Table 11.0 (Feenstra, Inklaar and Timmer 2015). License: CC BY 4.0. Methodology

Crisis history

No banking, currency, or sovereign-debt crisis is recorded for Brunei in the five chronologies (Global Macro Database, Reinhart-Rogoff, Laeven-Valencia, JST, ECB/ESRB).

Source: Global Macro Database 2026_06 | Reinhart-Rogoff (HBS BFFS) | Laeven & Valencia (2020, 2026) | Jordà-Schularick-Taylor Macrohistory Database | ECB/ESRB Financial Crises Database. License: non-commercial research (inherits GMD / JST); cite all five chronologies. Methodology

Early-warning gauge

Model and evaluation →

The crisis early-warning model (ews-1.0) scores Brunei from realized data only: features dated 2024 or earlier, no forecasts and no nowcasts. 4 of the model’s 7 features are observed here, and the score places Brunei in decile 2 of 10 among the 196 countries carrying a current row.

Onset probability, 1-3 years
3.2%
logistic model, prediction year 2025
Decile of current scores
2 of 10
196 countries scored
Features observed
4 of 7
dated 2024 or earlier
Largest signed contributions vs training average
  • Credit-to-GDP gap (pp) [missing] -0.39
  • Current account / GDP (%) = 14.5 -0.32
  • Real credit growth, 3y (%) [missing] -0.27

An early-warning score flags a macro-financial configuration that resembles past pre-crisis years; it is not a forecast for Brunei. At the published operating threshold (p ≥ 12.5%), the era-blocked out-of-sample backtest gives precision 16.9% and recall 25.7%: most flags did not precede an onset, and most onset years went unflagged.

Source: Jordà-Schularick-Taylor Macrohistory R6 | Laeven & Valencia (2026), IMF WP/26/94 | BIS credit-to-GDP gap and total credit (Data Portal) | Global Macro Database (release 2026_06). License: non-commercial research (inherits GMD / JST). Model ews-1.0, data vintage jst-r6(2020);lv-2026-wp2694(2023);bis-gap(2025-Q4);gmd-2026_06(cut2024). Methodology

Financial structure

Brunei's private bank credit is below the reporting-economy median

Annual measures of Brunei’s depth (private credit and deposits) and soundness (Z-score, nonperforming loans and concentration), in percentages and index points across the available World Bank GFDD history.
Private credit by banks
38.820
% of GDP
20.040.060.080.019992020
Bank Z-score
No data for this country
Nonperforming loans
3.8720
% of gross loans
2.004.006.008.0010.020092020
Bank concentration
No data for this country
GFDD values end in 2021 (the dataset’s last release year); a flat recent tail is the data stopping, not the sector standing still.

Source: World Bank Global Financial Development Database (Sep 2022). License: CC BY 4.0. Values end 2021 (GFDD's last release year). Methodology

Financial development

Brunei's financial development index is above the reporting-economy median

Brunei’s annual 0-to-1 IMF composite of financial-system depth, access and efficiency, split between institutions (banks, insurers and funds) and markets (stocks and bonds). Methodology: Svirydzenka (2016), IMF WP/16/5.
Financial development index
0.3220
index, 0 to 1
0.000.200.400.6019802020
Financial institutions index
0.4620
index, 0 to 1
0.000.250.500.7519802020
Financial markets index
0.1820
index, 0 to 1
0.000.100.2019802020
The IMF’s served series end in 2020; a flat recent tail is the data stopping, not the system standing still. The six depth/access/efficiency subindices are in the underlying dataset but not charted here.

Source: IMF Financial Development Index (IMF.MCM:FDI) | Svirydzenka (2016), IMF Working Paper WP/16/5. License: IMF, public open data with "Source: IMF, Financial Development Index" attribution. 0-1 scale; served values end 2020 (183 economies). Methodology

Bank soundness

Brunei's nonperforming-loan ratio is below the reporting-economy median

Annual IMF deposit-taker ratios for Brunei, in percent through 2025. The core indicators cover capital adequacy (regulatory and Tier 1 capital to risk-weighted assets), asset quality (nonperforming loans), earnings (return on assets and equity), and liquidity (liquid assets to total assets).
Regulatory capital
18.525
% of risk-weighted assets
16.018.020.022.020092025
Tier 1 capital
18.525
% of risk-weighted assets
18.020.022.024.020092025
Nonperforming loans
1.6125
% of gross loans
0.002.004.006.008.0020102025
Return on assets
1.5225
% (annualized)
0.501.001.502.002.5020102025
Return on equity
9.9025
% (annualized)
0.0010.020.020092025
Liquid assets
36.425
% of total assets
30.040.050.060.020102025
The World Bank GFDD soundness series above end in 2021. IMF FSI coverage varies by indicator and year.

Source: IMF Financial Soundness Indicators (FSI). License: IMF, free with "Source: IMF, Financial Soundness Indicators" attribution. Methodology

Financial inclusion

Brunei is not surveyed in the World Bank Global Findex (162 economies covered), so no financial-inclusion series is available here.

Source: World Bank Global Findex Database 2025. License: CC BY 4.0. Survey waves; percent of adults age 15+. Methodology

Credit cycle

Brunei is not in the BIS credit-statistics reporting set, so no credit-to-GDP gap, debt-service ratio, or property-price series is available here.

Source: BIS credit and debt-service statistics | BIS residential property prices. License: free with "Source: BIS" attribution. Methodology

Policy, shadow and exchange rates

Brunei is in none of the BIS central-bank policy-rate set (48 economies), the Krippner shadow short rate set, or the BIS real broad effective-exchange-rate set (63 economies), so no monetary-stance or exchange-rate series is available here.

Source: BIS central bank policy rates | BIS effective exchange rates | Krippner shadow short rate estimates (LJK Limited). License: BIS series are free with "Source: BIS" attribution; Krippner shadow-rate estimates are cited as model estimates from LJK Limited and are not republished as bulk data. Methodology

External position

Brunei runs a current-account surplus

Brunei’s annual external position through each source’s latest observation: the current-account balance (IMF, percent of GDP), the net international investment position and total official reserves (both shown as US-dollar levels, in billions, because the IMF IIP and World Bank reserve series carry dollar values rather than ratios), the degree of capital-account openness (the Chinn-Ito index, 0 closed to 1 open), and remittance inflows. A positive current account or net-IIP reading is a surplus/creditor position; a negative one is a deficit/debtor position. Each panel appears only where Brunei has that series.
Current-account balance
14.524
% of GDP
0.0025.050.075.019852024
Net international investment position
No data for this country
Total reserves
5.4925
US$ billion
0.002.004.006.0019992025
Current account and net IIP: IMF BOP/IIP, to 2025. Reserves: World Bank FI.RES.TOTL.CD, to 2025.

Source: IMF Balance of Payments and IIP Statistics | World Bank, Total reserves (FI.RES.TOTL.CD). License: IMF and World Bank, free with attribution ("Source: IMF"; World Bank reserves CC BY 4.0). Methodology

Income and wealth inequality

Cross-country inequality →

How concentrated Brunei’s income and wealth are. Top shares come from WID.world on equal-split adults (each adult in a couple assigned half the couple’s total); income (a flow) and wealth (a stock) are shown as distinct measures and never combined into one figure. The Gini coefficients are survey-based, on a 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (maximal concentration) scale: the World Bank PIP survey Gini and, where covered, the OECD disposable-income (post-tax, post-transfer) Gini. Each reading shows its year and, where a cross-country distribution exists, where Brunei sits among reporting economies. WID extends its most recent years by extrapolation, so a latest reading is an estimate.

Top 10% income share
36.6%
WID pre-tax national income, equal-split adults, 2024
216 economies; median 47.0%; ranks above 43 of 215
Top 1% income share
13.1%
WID pre-tax national income, equal-split adults, 2024
216 economies; median 16.1%; ranks above 63 of 215
Top 10% wealth share
57.3%
WID net personal wealth, equal-split adults, 2024
216 economies; median 61.5%; ranks above 20 of 215

Source: WID.world (World Inequality Database) | World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform | OECD Income Distribution Database. License: WID.world and OECD IDD: display-with-attribution (owner no-redistribution ruling); World Bank PIP: CC BY 4.0. Top shares on equal-split adults; recent WID years are extrapolated. Ginis are survey-based and measure a different object from the fiscal top shares. Methodology

Latest government debt 2.3% of GDP (2024, Central govt (IMF GDD)). Peak 3.2% in 2014. This is below the 80.7% median at which 2000+ sovereign crises began (a comparison, not a prediction).

Latest debt
2.3%
2024
Peak debt
3.2%
2014
Sovereign crises
0
none on record

Source: IMF Global Debt Database | IMF World Economic Outlook. License: IMF, free with "Source: IMF" attribution. Methodology

Reading this profile

  • This page composes existing FinObservatory layers; it introduces no new data. Every figure is reproducible from the source cited in its section. See the methodology for the composition and each source’s coverage and staleness.
  • The peer line on a card (“N economies report; median…”) places this country’s latest reading among every reporting economy’s own latest reading for the same indicator, under the same filters. Latest years differ where reporting lags. It is a descriptive position (a count and a median), not a score; for indicators where lower is safer, such as nonperforming loans, a high position is not a good one.
  • The layers stop at different dates: the World Bank GFDD depth and soundness series end 2021 and the IMF Financial Development Index ends 2020, but the IMF FSI soundness panel is current (annual through 2024–2025 where reported); the Global Findex inclusion series are surveyed in waves and reach 2024; IMF debt runs to 2024; the Penn World Table runs 1950–2023; and the BIS statistics are the most current (credit through 2025, residential property to 2026Q1, and the policy rate and effective exchange rate into 2026 where reported). Krippner's month-end shadow short rate estimates, where this page has them, run 1995-01-31 to 2026-06-30 and are model estimates rather than observed policy rates. The external accounts reach 2025 (IMF balance-of-payments and reserves), 2024 (remittance inflows) and 2023 (capital-account openness). A quiet recent tail in one section can simply be where that source stops.
  • Where a source has no reading for Brunei, the section says so in words instead of drawing a chart. A stated absence means the underlying dataset does not cover this country, not that the value is zero.

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